


Vesuvius Center

by Gaia_bing



Category: Spartacus Series (TV), Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Vengeance, Spartacus: War of the Damned
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Character Death, Happy Ending, M/M, Old Age, Supernatural Elements, Tragedy, nursing home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 17:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1313950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaia_bing/pseuds/Gaia_bing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Welcome to the Vesuvius Center! Where people come to help those at the end of their lives. And that's just so happen to be what the young new intern, who likes to be called Mr. A for some reason, intends to do. But what is with that grumpy old man over there and will he and the new intern get along? And what is the secret that is linking the both of them together without them knowing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vesuvius Center

**Author's Note:**

> Plot...bunnies...wanted to...come out. Please.... enjoy! :D
> 
> *phew*

A bubbling blonde came to greet him on his very first day, a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

"Hello! Hi, you must be our new intern. I'm Chadara and welcome to the "Vesuvius Center"! Please, put your coat on the rack over there and follow me, I'll introduce you to everybody and show you around!"

Doing as he was told and taking his leather coat off, the short-haired man walked behind one of the Center's caretaker as she talked and bounced her way down the many corridors and through the many doors of the nursing home that he'd been hired to, with high recommendations from his former employer to boot.

"So this right here is our communal room, where everybody comes to watch TV, play games and receive visits from their families and their friends. Visiting hours at the Center are usually between 9AM and 7PM on weekdays and between 10AM and 5PM during the weekends. 

And if you look just outside the window over there, there's a little park where we like to accompany our patients whenever they want to go outside. Now if you'll follow me, everybody's already in the cafeteria for breakfast and I want all of them to meet you." 

And so, this is how the new intern, with his twenties-something good looks, found himself inside a room full of older people than him, some walking with aid and some not needing any. And everyone who noticed him when he entered the cafeteria stared at him as if he was a alien coming from some unknown planet.

Chadara, with a huge smile, clapped her hands together to get all of the elders' attention. With a booming voice, so that the people with harder hearing could understand her, she proudly announced:

"Everyone! This is our new intern! He is here on a temporary basis and if you have any questions or anything that need to be attended to, come up to him and he'll be glad to help you out however he can. Isn't that right...?"

"Oh, uh, please, call me Mr. A."

"Alright. Everyone, please say hello to Mr. A!"

Different hellos and his came pouring out of the different faces smiling at him and he couldn't help but smile back as he looked around.

But that was until he noticed a man, in his brownish bathrobe and long white hair, staring at him with a scowl and seemed to mumble something under his breath before getting up to go get a second serving of toasts and eggs. 

The intern looked at Chadara in confusion and asked her: "Who is that?"

"Oh, that's one of our oldest residents. He's been here for a very long time and he's always been a grumpy kind of fellow. Don't you worry about him. Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you the rest of the Center and give you some paperwork to fill up. Is that alright with you?" she answered with a smile.

Mr. A, as he wanted to be called, simply stared at the back of the passing-by grumpy looking old man for a moment before turning around and nodded as he replied:

"Yeah, it's alright."

*************

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

"Stupid thing! Never working when I want it to!"

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

"Is there anybody out there that can help me out, please?!" the old man screeched as he tried for the eleventh time in the past ten minutes to get his TV to work. Now was the time for his stories and if he didn't find out whether Glenda was pregnant or not with Richard's baby right this second, he was going to throw the fittest of fits that ever fitted! 

And for the tenth time, he pressed his assistance button and after almost giving up on anybody ever helping him, his door suddenly opened and Mr. A, the newest addition to the Center staff, smiled as he stepped inside the room and asked:

"Yes sir, I am here now sir! Sorry to be so late! Mrs. Gaius needed help with her crosswords and you know how she is with those. What did you need help for, sir?" 

The old man looked at him with a frown and crossed his arms as he said: "Look bucko, I don't know why my sweet little Saxa is gone and you're out there replacing her, but if you want to make yourself useful, which I know you won't, why don't you try and fix my TV? "Love you tenderly" is on in five minutes and if I don't see it-"

"You won't know if Glenda is pregnant with Richard's baby or not and if he's going to end up dumping Marian at the altar for her or not." the intern cut-off the old man with a small smile. 

"How...how do you know all of that?" the old man said, with a stunned look adorning his face.

Bending over and with what seemed like magic, the intern fixed the TV in almost an instant, leaving the elderly man even more shocked than just a second ago. 

And with a sheepish grin, Mr. A simply shrugged and admitted: "I'm a little bit of a fan of the show myself, that's how I know what's going on."

The old man blinked and seeing his favorite soap about to start, he walked over to his bed and sat down right on the edge of it. 

With the corner of his eye, he noticed the intern fidgeting in place, his hands intertwined in front of his body and looking quickly left and right over and over...

"Oh, alright son! You can come here and watch it with me if you want. But be quiet, if I hear just a peep out of you...." the old man finally relinquished, patting the space just at the right of him on his bed.

And like a child, the intern seemed to light up and he almost sprinted toward the worn-out mattress. Sitting down on top of it, making the elderly man next to him bounce a little, the short-haired man smiled as he said: "Thank you sir, it means a lot to me."

The old man took his eyes off the screen for a second and took a good look at his new viewing partner. Seeing the young man's eyes sparkle and appreciating his help from earlier, he couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on his cracked lips as he replied: "Oh, it's alright son. And stop calling me sir, alright? I'm Nasir."

The intern simply nodded and the both of them turned their heads to look at the TV screen and the continuing saga of the Shepherds Family. 

And in the middle of the show, just as Abeline was about to pull the trigger on her father Lucian, Nasir was sure that he heard the young man next to him whisper back, without leaving his eyes off the TV screen:

"And I'm Agron, by the way." 

But he must have heard it wrong, because there was no way the younger man had just said that. Stupid hearing aid...

************

"So, tell me, Mr. Nasir, how long have you been here?" the intern asked as they were walking together, or rather the younger man was pushing the older man in his trusty wheelchair, inside the park a few days later.

"Oh, well...I don't remember exactly. Seems like forever ago since they've brought me here." the elderly man said with a smile.

"Do you have any friends or any family that visit you? Surely you must have someone that comes by and see you every once in a while." the intern continued asking. 

Nasir frowned at that question and just replied: "No, all of my friends have died a long time ago and my family is always either too busy or too far to come and see me. It's been just me, in my little 'ole room, for the past ten years or so." 

This made the intern stop his wheelchair pushing mid-tracks and Nasir looked up and was shocked to see the young man with his eyes clouded with what seemed like...tears?!

"Hey now, don't you worry about me kiddo, I'm alright. Even if the people that I meet come and go, I still get some great memories whenever I think about them and I don't really feel that lonely around here, believe me." the old man replied while patting the intern's hand sympathetically. 

The intern suddenly shook his head, wiping the tears that wanted to come out for some reason and he resumed his wheelchair pushing by saying:

"Well, Mr. Nasir, I promise you that with me around, you'll never feel lonely again, I can tell you that much."

And Nasir smiled at that and replied:

"Well, that's good to hear."

************

And lonely he didn't feel. Over the next few months, all of the intern's time seemed to be passed with the white-haired man. Sure, whenever someone else needed help, the young man was there in almost a flash, but these days, his attentions seemed to all be on Nasir and Nasir only. 

And what a grand 'ole time they had together: laughing, watching TV, playing cards and chess or whatever games the intern could find and most of all: talking. They talked and they talked and they talked together for what seemed like hours at a time, until it was either Nasir's time for a nap or if Mr. A (as he still liked to be called despite developing a friendship with the older man) had somewhere else urgent to be. 

But, as it often happens in relationships of any kind, theirs hit a snag when one night, with nothing good on TV to watch and no good games to play, Nasir decided to show the young man his photo album.

The intern seemed absorbed by what he was seeing and hearing, because as Nasir was flipping over the plastic pages, he told stories after stories about his many friends during the "good old days" as he liked to call them and about the many members of his humongous family. 

It was when Nasir was about to turn the album onto its last page that the mood seemed to change between them. Because, instead of showing it to the intern, Nasir decided to skip it and closed the album shut on his knees. 

The intern looked at the elderly man with curious eyes and asked: "What was on there?" 

"Oh nothing, nothing. It's nothing interesting really. 'Wanna watch some TV? I hear the there's some good _Jerry Springer_ reruns coming up..."

But the young man didn't budge. He took the album right off of Nasir's knees before the older man could do anything and with a smile, he said: "Oh come on now, Nasir, what could be in there that's so boring that you don't wanna show me? I mean, you showed me a picture of your dog, so it can't really be that bad."

And his breath caught in his throat as he flipped over the album to the last page and saw exactly what was on it:

It was Nasir, looking young and very dashing, wearing what looked like to be a tuxedo and a radiant smile upon his face. He was also wearing a golden band on his finger. Next to him was someone, also wearing what seemed like to be a tuxedo and a matching golden ring, but the intern couldn't quite see who it was, his face was all blurry...

That was strange, the intern thought, since when did...

His thoughts were quickly cut off when, as if he was a child that was taking back his stolen candy, Nasir pulled the album right out of the younger man's hands and put it back inside the drawer that it had come out of.

The intern looked at the elderly man with a confused look as he said: "You never told me you were married." 

"Well, maybe it's because it's none of you damn business!" Nasir replied sharply, his eyes downcast.

"Well, where has he been for the past ten years? Why hasn't he come to visit you?" the intern pressed on, but Nasir wouldn't have none of his crap. 

"I told you, this part of my life isn't any of your damn business! Now can we please move on to something else?" he begged through gritted teeth, but if there was one thing Mr. A was, it was stubborn.

"No, I really wanna know! Why aren't you wearing a wedding ring if you're in fact married? Are you ashamed of being with him?"

_"Mr. A...."_

"No, I'm not finished! What has he done wrong? Don't you love him anymore?"

_"Mr. A...."_

"But maybe that's it, maybe he's just gone and you've forgotten all about him, have you? You don't wanna mention him to anybody because you're ashamed of your relationship and you don't want anybody else to know about the two of you! And the minute that he was gone, oh I'm sure that you cozied up with someone else real warm and real tight now, did you?

_"For god's sake, Agron, shut the fuck up!"_

The intern instantly shut his mouth, his chest heaving and his voice hoarse from raising it like that, against his...against his...

"I...I have to go. I'm sorry, sir to have yelled at you like that." he whispered, his whole body retreating against Nasir's bedroom door and then down the hallway, leaving the confused elderly man all alone once again with one question galloping all around his head:

_What the hell had just happened here?_

*************

Chadara, who had heard everything from just outside the room, looked sternly at the young intern when he walked by her a few minutes later. 

"What the hell was that, huh?" she asked as she started to walk after him.

"It's nothing, Chadara, don't worry about it." the intern said as he opened the back door of the Center and stepped outside to take some much-needed fresh air. 

""Don't worry about it?!" I'll worry about it all right: you just yelled at one of our patients! What would make you do that!?" the young woman said with raised eyebrows as well as a raised voice.

"We 'got in an argument, okay? We were looking through his photo album together and he didn't want me to see the last page and when I did see it, it freaked the hell out of him and it also freaked the hell out of me!" the young man said and breathed in the cold night air.

"Well, what was on that page that freaked you both so much?" Chadara asked.

"It was of him at a wedding. Marrying someone. But I couldn't see his face." the intern replied with a small sigh.

"Oh...you don't know about him..." Chadara replied after a beat of silence.

"Don't know what?" the intern asked.

"That must have been Nasir's husband, as you probably already guessed. They got married very young and thought they had their entire lives ahead of them. But, six years into the marriage..." Chadara started to say.

"What? What happened?" the intern asked with raised brows.

"It was their anniversary and they got into a huge fight. His husband accused Mr. Nasir of cheating on him because he wasn't wearing his wedding ring when he came out to accompany him to their anniversary date and his husband stormed out of their house before Mr. Nasir could explain. You see, it was supposed to be a surprise: Mr. Nasir had gone to the jeweler to have something special engraved on it and was going to pick it up the very next morning, so that was why he wasn't wearing it at the time. " Chadara explained with a sad smile.

Feeling himself welling up and sniffling, much to his own surprise, the intern asked in a cracking voice: "And then what happened?"

"His husband went out with their car to get some fresh air, but they didn't find him until the next morning." Chadara replied.

"What...what do you mean not find him? Where the hell was he?" the intern asked once again.

"He...he was found inside a ditch. The car was upside down, there was blood everywhere. He was killed in a car accident, that's what I'm trying to say." the young woman said.

"Wow." was all the intern could say to that.

"And the worst part was, when they found him, the paramedics also found a crushed bouquet of flowers right next to him, with a note apologizing to Mr. Nasir for everything that had happened the night before. But, the other man never received it, so he has lived all these years with the thought that his husband had died being angry at him. So, that is all why he never talks to anyone about him. 

And as for his wedding ring, when Mr. Nasir got it back the next morning, he threw it out into the river, angry at it for causing his husband's death, angry at himself for not doing anything to prevent it, but also a bit angry at his husband for dying before they could mend things out between the two of them." Chadara explained.

The intern looked at the young woman with curious eyes and said: "But, I don't understand. How do you know all of this if Mr. Nasir has never talked to anyone about this?" 

And at that, the blonde woman simply smiled and, grabbing the intern's hand inside her own, replied: "Really Agron, why do you think you've been sent here?"

And that's when it hit him: the flashes, the memories. Why he'd felt sad when the older man had mentioned having no friends and no family around, why he had felt an instant connection the first time he'd first talked to the elderly man. Why he'd freaked out and welled up whenever he'd seen or heard anything related to Mr. Nasir's husband. 

That was because...it was because....

"I'm Nasir's husband." Agron replied in a whisper, staring at his smooth-looking hands and then around, as if he was looking at the world through brand new eyes.

"That's right. You were recommended from above, back to me, to take care of Mr. Nasir after Saxa's own husband Gannicus passed away and she went with him up to where she'd came from. But, when you arrived, you had no memories of who you were, just like it happens whenever we first come down here. You only said that you liked to be called Mr. A and that you were looking for a job. Mr. A, as in Mr. Agron Asker, the last name that you picked when you and Nasir got married. So that's what I and other people called you from then on. 

But I knew who you were, I've known all this time. We're in a very special place here, Agron. Some of the staff are ordinary humans, living their lives and helping others, while people like you and me are family and friends that people have lost all throughout their lives and we come back and take care of them just as they are about to finish their own. Just like Saxa did with her husband and just like you have done for over the past few months with yours." Chadara finished explaining with a tender smile on her face.

"Wait...Nasir..." Agron started to say, but the words wouldn't come out of his throat no matter how much he wanted them to.

"Is about to die, yes. It's his heart, Agron. It's been bad for years. You don't have much time left. Go to him and do what you should have done right from the start." Chadara replied and disappeared right before the young man's eyes. 

Agron turned his head toward the door of the "Vesuvius Center" with a renewed sense of purpose. He was going to do it, he was going to make everything alright, before it was too late to do so.

_**************_

Nasir tossed and turned in his bed, trying to get some sleep but not being able to no matter how hard he tried. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to get his breath slower and more steady and for a moment he thought he'd managed to go to sleep, when the creak of his bedroom door made him open his eyes once again.

"What?" he called out in an irritated voice and was about to sit up, when his eyes looked around and his breath caught in his throat by what he was seeing: 

There stood his husband, dressed just like that day all those years ago, with a bouquet of the most beautiful roses that Nasir had ever seen in all of his life inside of his hands and with a ring on his finger.

"Hey." the young intern whispered with a small smile. He slowly approached the bed and sat down on the edge of it. "These are for you, my love." 

"Mr. A? A...Agron?" the elderly man whispered in a broken voice. 

Reaching out and taking one of Nasir's wrinkled hands inside his own, Agron tearfully smiled and nodded. 

And Nasir couldn't help it: he launched himself inside Agron's warm embrace. They held one another tightly as they both cried their poor broken and lonely hearts out.

Sniffling and retreating his head back to look at the dashing face of his husband, Nasir whispered: "Oh, my darling, my sweet Agron. How could I not recognize you after all of this time?" 

"Maybe it was because I couldn't even recognize myself." Agron replied as he too sniffled. Wiping the flowing tears from his eyes and remembering what he had to do, he caressed Nasir's face with one of his hand and added: "I know you that have a lot of questions and I'll tell you everything, I promise. But, I'm here to give you this." he reached to the flowers that he'd put on the nearby nightstand just before reaching the bed and gave them to his husband. 

"These are for you, these have always been for you, my love. If you only knew how sorry I am for being so stupid and thinking all of those bad things about you, when I shouldn't have known that none of them were true. How sorry I am that I've left you here, all alone and all of this time. And don't think for a single second that I died being angry at you, I am the fool that you should be angry at and not the other way around..." he whispered in a broken voice, but Nasir shushed him and replied:

"You never have to apologize about anything alright? If there's someone that should be sorry here, it's me. If I hadn't had the stupid idea to get my wedding ring engraved, all of this would have never happened and you would have been with me, all of this time. I may have been angry at you at first, but I'm not now and I never, ever will be. And unfortunately, I don't even have the symbol of our love on me anymore."

"What, you mean this thing right here?" Agron said as he pointed to Nasir's finger and much to the long-haired man's shock, there it was: the wedding ring that he'd thrown out into the river so long ago, was now once again resting on his finger. And, the second shock that he received, was when he looked at his hand and at the rest of his body, he realized that wasn't the old wrinkled elderly man that he'd grown to become, but was now once again the young, smooth looking man that he'd once been.

"Wow, look at me, I'm young again!" Nasir exclaimed in awe and looking back at his husband, he saw the same love that he'd felt for all of these years for the taller man reflecting back inside his emerald eyes. 

"Happy anniversary Nasir." Agron whispered, leaning in closer to Nasir's sitting body.

"Happy anniversary Agron or should I say, Mr. A." Nasir whispered back with a grin as he pronounced the special nickname he'd always called his husband ever since they'd gotten hitched, deciding to take charge and leaning the rest of the way to kiss his husband tenderly, just like the way that he'd promised the other man that he would always love him when they got married all of these years ago. Just like the engraving on his wedding ring was saying. 

And this is how the staff of the "Vesuvius Center" found the 85 year-old Nasir the next morning, on the day of his and Agron's wedding anniversary, having died in his sleep the night before because of his bad heart, with a bouquet of flowers in his hands and the most radiant smile upon his wrinkled face.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, leave me a kudos or a review and tell me what you thought. Thank you! :)


End file.
